Workers in federally-regulated fields across Canada will now be more easily able to take time off for personal and medical issues.

As of Sept. 1, employees working in interprovincial and international transportation fields like railways, buses, pipelines and airports, fields like grain processing, banking, uranium, telecommunications and broadcasting, Crown corporations and First Nations band councils will get general holiday pay , medical leave, maternity and parental leave, leave related to critical illness and leave related to death or disappearance of a child as of their first day at work.

Other changes include:

personal leave up to five days, including 3 days with pay

family violence leave up to 10 days, with five days paid

leave for traditional Indigenous practices of up to 5 unpaid days

expanded bereavement leave from three to five days, three of them paid

unpaid leave for court or jury duty

new breaks and rest periods (medical and nursing breaks, work breaks); and

increased annual vacation entitlements (three weeks after five years of service, four weeks after 10 years of service)